THE Independent Union and Officials Centre, CSIF Almeria, has welcomed the Andalucian Health Service (SAS) plans to hire social workers, but have condemned the number of 30 as “ridiculous” and a “clearly insufficient amount”.
In the province of Almeria, the trade union warns that staffing numbers are already precarious as social work isn’t fully staffed nor are replacements available for staff vacation time. They add the current arrangement means staff are overworked and patient care is at risk.
The health sector union continues to maintain the ‘1TSxEBAP’ campaign which launched in May and seeks to raise awareness of the importance of this group in health centres across Almeria and Andalucia.
The association welcomes the commitment from the Junta de Andalucia to increase staffing numbers but warns it is a total for the region and not just Almeria. They call the figure “clearly insufficient” if primary care centres are to have a professional resource available to them.
The Health Minister of the Andalucian Government, Marina Álvarez, acknowledged questions from CSIF as to the situation, offering assurances that the service will continue to be strengthened by more public sector employees in the future.
